Random thoughts on a variety of things but mainly on learning and teaching…

community of practice

The Hallowe’en edition of edchatnz was frantic and energising as tweetchats usually are. This is only my second edchatnz as I am often out on a Thursday but I managed to catch the first part of this one. The topic was BYOD and as you can imagine there was plenty to talk about. Some teachers are just starting out with BYOD in their schools, some are old hands and some are somewhere in between.

Lots of questions, lots of advice. Do you specify devices or allow anything? Do you shut the network down or do you open it up? What do you do about user agreements, security, equality of access? How do you prepare teachers and students and parents? What role does the tech support play? Do you work in the cloud or store on servers? Android, Apple, Microsoft, Open Source, Chromebooks, netbooks, laptops, smartphones, tablets? Opportunities for learning, sharing, failing, succeeding, self-direction, motivation, differentiation, time-management, distractions, off-task, on-task, classroom management…..

So many issues but the great thing was the collegiality of the chat, the solutions that were offered, the fact that we are modelling a community of practice, just in time PD. The information gleaned was relevant, useful, authentic, in the moment. The overwhelming theme that came through for me was the emphasis and focus on LEARNING. We are all starting to get the message that PEDAGOGY has to drive the tools we use and not the other way round.

“Authority is supposedly grounded in wisdom, but I could see from a very early age that authority was only a system of control and it didn't have any inherent wisdom. I quickly realised that you either became a power or you were crushed” Joe Strummer